It's been a few months now since The Lost and Damned graced our consoles and got us all stuck back into GTA IV. Finally, after much anticipation, the second piece of episodic content has arrived in the form of The Ballad of Gay Tony. Conveniently, both instalments have been bundled together and titled "Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City", which doesn't even require the original GTA IV game to work.

To be honest, calling it episodic content almost plays down the fact that Gay Tony plays like a whole new game, similar to the way The Lost and Damned was. Is it worth the asking price, and were Microsoft wise to invest in exclusive content? Let's check it out.

As was the case with The Lost and Damned, Rockstar have made some big changes to GTA IV and have attempted to improve on many areas. The use of video filters in The Lost and the Damned gave players a look into the gritty, hard life of a biker, opposed to The Ballad of Gay Tony which takes us into Liberty City's nightlife, giving a taste of the bright lights and club scene. Again the use of filters and of visual effects emphasises the environment, and GTA IV is shown in a whole new light. The beauty of this is that Rockstar have once again created an experience that is utterly engrossing, and entirely believable.

You play as Luis Lopez who is a wide range of things to Tony Prince, Liberty City’s top dog in the club scene. Luis is the muscle in Tony’s business, and pretty good at his work. Tony Prince owns some of Liberty City’s hottest clubs, which you will aid him in running as his business partner. In your business relationship with Tony Prince you will have to help him fight of a number of investors and gangsters who all want a slice of the pie. The way Rockstar have once again created wonderful characters and an amazing storyline makes the expansion utterly compelling, and possibly the best of all three story arcs in GTA IV, although none could exist without the others. The Gay Tony storyline provides excellent value for money again and will take some time to complete, breathing a huge amount of new life into GTA IV.

In your role as Tony’s right hand man and business partner, you will engage in a range of new tasks, many which seem to be inspired by previous GTA titles. Club management is definitely one of my favourites and it involves you keeping an eye on the clubs, kicking out any possible troublemakers. It's great largely because of the awesome clubs that Rockstar have designed. The pumping music and the flashing lights, as well as the scantily-clad party-goers make it all worthwhile. The job doesn’t come without its perks either, though I’ll let you play the game to find out about these, but you can rest assured your work in the clubs won’t go unnoticed.

While in the clubs Luis can also join in some dancing, which is pretty much the perfect place to pick up ladies. Here the game turns into a sort of Dance Dance Revolution button pushing fiesta, but is relatively easy to complete. Also, it's the perfect way to meet up with ladies who you can call up later on for another round. A number of other mini games are also included, which generally entail getting drunk in the clubs.

A bigger aspect of the game are the gang wars where you help some old friends Henrique and Armando to get rich from drug deals. This typically involves running drugs and crashing deals in an attempt to get rich fast. It works well and more or less completes the picture of Luis as a big shot drug and club runner. If you get bored with earning money you can take to the golf course, or try out some BASE jumping (yep the BASE jumping is back from GTA III). Now you can leap out of your helicopter, or off the top of a tall building only to parachute your way to safety, though you will need to fork out for a chute unless bailing from a chopper. This is definitely a blast, but as is the nature with BASE jumping it's always over too quickly, but you can start all over again once you hit the ground. This extends to the multiplayer where an aim can be to complete all BASE jumps in as little possible time. You can release smoke from your pack so friends can track you, and be waiting when you land. Or to kill you, it's entirely up to them, but hilarity does ensue.

On top of the addition of new challenges and activities in single player, the multiplayer has a range of new weapons and contained areas for your death matches. The new weapons include sticky bombs, an explosive shotgun and gold SMG, amongst others. The sticky bombs are fantastic, and have been sorely missed thus far. They’ve made their way into the single player as well, and are as fun to use as they sound. Rockstar have also included kill streaks which give extra bonuses of health and armour to the player, and ending another players kill streak will result in a sizeable bounty.

In true Rockstar style they haven’t stopped there, and we again have a range of new TV stations and radio to listen to. These are as amazing as always but it could be that the TV shows have gotten even better. The new soundtrack ties in well with the club atmosphere, but there’s something new here for everyone. Rockstar really know how to take the term downloadable content to a whole new level.

The Gay Tony content makes for an amazing addition to GTA IV. Once again Rockstar have blown us away by showing us that GTA IV is still incredibly entertaining. They are continually perfecting it to become something significantly better than what it once was, but as mentioned GTA IV feels as though it requires all the expansions to really come together, giving you the full Liberty City experience, and running a red thread through the storylines.

The downsides are that as in the original your friends pester you for ‘dates’ and it can be somewhat time consuming, and still not that much more fun, and if it weren’t for the perks that come from these we’d give them a miss. The focus on helicopters and jumping from high buildings is excellent and it's nice that this is being encouraged.

The Ballad of Gay Tony is a sizeable chunk of game that is well worth the investment. Grab it either as DLC for your existing GTA IV, or standalone as part of the Episodes pack, you won't regret it.